Manufacture of gold inlays



June 11, 1935. J. A. DALY MANUFACTURE OF GOLD INLAYS Filed May15, 1931 INVENTOR /;4..,, a. ATTORNE Patented June 11 PATENT OFFICE A 2,004,747 MANUFACTURE oF GoLn'nvLAYs John A. Daly, New Rochelle, N. Y. Application May 15, 1931, Serial No. 537,622

. Claims. (01132-16) I I My present invention relates to the manufacture of gold inlays and has particular reference to the provision of a prepared gold foil by means 7 of which anyoneskilled in the art may make a gold inlay simply andv quickly. I

It is an object of this invention to provide a gold inlay material so prepared that an inlay of any size or form may be made withoutcast- I-Ieretoforathe only practical and commercial methods of forming gold inlays has been either by electrical deposition or, in the case of dental inlays,;'by elaborate preparation of the tooth, preparation of a mold, the use of a castingmachine, and the utilization of a dense, hard alloy of gold which, when finally shaped to the cavity, mustbe cemented into place. Because of the density of a cast inlay, the cement does not penetrate the metal, andthe inlay in the course 2 of time may, and frequently does,,fal1 out of the cavity. r f

Numerous methods have been proposed to overcome the cost. and time period required for cast inlays and the utilization of such materialsv as precipitated gold, chipped gold, and even socalled shredded gold has been proposed. Some of these materials, in conjunction with pure rolled gold, are possible of use in laboratory work but have never been successfully applied com- 30 mercially, largely because of the difficulty of handling, the lack of purity which is so essential in welding gold masses together by hand, the skill required for success, and the loss of ductility in the gold itself causing it to crumble 35 with age and scale away. At the present time in dental work there is no known method of commercially providing a satisfactory handpacked, pure gold inlay sufficiently porous to be retained in a cavity by a cementing process. 40 An object of this present invention is to provide such a method whereby a dental inlay of pure gold may be made with substantially no more difficulty than an amalgam filling.

It is a further object to provide such a method whereby an inlay of pure gold may be made in a small fraction of the time required either for cast inlays or electrically deposited inlays either for dental or other work.

It is a still further object of my present invention to provide a method and material for making a hand-packed pure gold inlay at a cost only a fraction of any method known to the art at present.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, my invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts, the selection and preparation of materials, and various steps in a process or method, described in this specification and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

I intend no limitations other than those of the 5 claims, it being understood that changes may be made within the scope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention. An embodiment of my invention which I at present prefer is'shown for illustrative purposes 10 in the accompanying drawing in. which Fig. 1 represents a sheet of prepared gold foil, a portion offithe sheet being prepared in my preferred method;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of a portion of the gold sheet to more clearly indicate the method of preparation.

Similar reference characters relate to similar parts in the views. I In the preparation of material, I take sheet gold or gold foil, as I, place it carefully over a metal mesh of about the fineness of #50, cover v the foil with a thin fabric, and then with a wire or bristle brush, rap the gold into the mesh, tearing the sheet in innumerable perforations 5 and providing a continuous sheet of pure foil with a multitude of projecting corners and edges, as 2. Preferably, in place of a simple mesh, I choose to use roughly perforated metal such as used, for example, in what are known as nutmeg graters. This gives a raggedly perforated and punctured gold sheet having portions such as illustrated herewith, as at 3. The gold sheet may be removed from the perforated anvil or mesh in one piece by sharply rapping the metal, and may be laid on a clean paper or napkin. I then have a self-welding, perforated and roughly punctured sheet of pure gold foil with innumerable jagged corners and edges capable of matting or felting together or with other similarly prepared sheets into a porous, ductile, homogeneous mass.

To obtain any desired thickness of gold as many sheets as desired may be laid or felted together but, in this case, annealing is deferred until the desired thickness is reached and then all the sheets are annealed at one time. The edges of the sheet may be trimmed and the sheet cut to size most convenient. Where a single thickness only is required-,. it may be rolled into cylindrical form, and where a very thin sheet is to be used, a binding sheet of plain gold foil may be wrapped around or within the prepared sheet or sheets, as may also be done with greater thicknesses if desired. Extreme cleanliness is required in handling the gold foil,

g dense.

both of instruments and of atmosphere. It is of particular importance that the hand does not touch the prepared gold foil, as any impurity will affect the cohesiveness,

In the useof my prepared gold sheets, a piece or pieces of the prepared foil, out if need be from a larger sheet, and annealed, is placed in the cavity to be filled, if other than dental work, a clean bit of cotton placed over the gold, and the mass pressed down firmly into place Because of its ductility and construction,-the mass will spread in all directions. densed to the extent desired and further layers added in the same way, the formation of the;

prepared gold sheets being such that extreme cohesiveness is attained between" layers, together with a maximum felting effect. When the cavity is filled and properly condensed by"p1'uggers and mallet, or otherwise, into an intimate-, 'homogeneous mass, it may be burnished and polished, theexposed'surface thus. being made In dental work, I preferto make a replica of the tooth cavity inj any usual. way and to fill the replica cavity as described above, there being no retaining edge. After preparation of the inlay in the replica cavity, it is. lifted out, the tooth'cavity cemented, and theinlay transferred to the tooth cavity. As theinl'ay is porous, be,- cause of the material and method used, the ce,-' ment. not only penetrates the porous dentine of the tooth but also the porous inlay, and unites the inlay and tooth firmly, a', short period. of time being required for Setting. With this method I, have found that a gold inlay maybe made and set in from fifteen minutes 'to, an. hour, ac,- cording to size, as against half a day 0 a day to prepare a cast inlay and an hour or two to properly polish it.,

I am aware, of course, that the use of. pure gold for filling teeth is :not new; nor is the use of gold foil, but what I claim as newisz' l. A pure gold inlay comprising a, porous,

It may be confelted mass of gold foil, substantially as described.

2. The method of making inlay material comprising brushing pure gold foil over a plurality of openings whereby to roughly puncture said foil and provide a multitude of dictinctly jagged corners and edges projecting from the surface of said foil of such character whereby to provide means to felt a plurality of said'sheets together.

3. A gold inlay material comprising a plurality of, sheets ofroughly punctured gold foil annealed, tangled and felted together.

4. The method of making a dental inlay comprising individually tearing a. plurality of sheets of pure gold foil in innumerable perforations having jagged corners projecting above the surfaced? the sheets, felting said sheets together by. means of said projecting portions to a desired thickness, annealing the mass of sheets,

and: compressing said sheets within a cavity into an intimate, homogeneous, porous mass, substantially as described. V

5. A pure. gold inlay comprising a. porous, felted mass comprised of portions of a plurality of roughly punctured sheets of gold foil felted together by means of projecting portions, substantially as described. v

6. As an article of manufacture, a porous, felted'roll of pure gold foil.

7. A gold material comprising a plurality of sheets of roughly punctured goldv foil, each sheet having innumerable jagged portions projecting from the, surface of the, foil. roughly tangled with corresponding projections on. other sheets. whereby said}. sheets are felted together in, a porous mass.

8;. A pure gold inlay material. free fromjsurf'ace contamination and comprising a plurality of sheets of roughly punctured goldfoil and means to felt said sheets together into a. porous mass, saidmeans comprising distinctly jagged projections rising abovethe surface of said, foil 

